When Stephen Dukker was studying to become a doctor, he started a computer consulting business to help pay his tuition.
After growing the business to 200 employees, he eventually quit school to run the business full time, even though it took him a year and a half to come clean with his mother that he’d left school.
While his mother may have been disappointed, it was the start of a very successful career for Dukker — and a realization that people were key.
“I had quite a well-refined understanding of the importance of people and of their personality characteristics as an ingredient of success, apart from just their technical capability,” he says.
Dukker would go on to found several different ventures, including eMachines, which made $817 million in revenue during its first year. Today, Dukker is chairman and CEO of NComputing Inc., which provides computer access for a very low cost by allowing users to tap into a shared computer by using a special device.
He has learned over the years that beyond capital, having the right people is critical to business success.
“You have to have the right team put together that knows how to operate in times of adversity, how to control expenses, knows when to spend, when not to spend, how to balance the investments between getting new customers as well as supporting the customers you already have so you maintain a happy customer base,” Dukker says.
Throughout this experience, he’s learned how to identify what he needs, ask the right questions and then hire different people as the business changes.
